The expert called the main criteria for buying an artificial Christmas tree

Which Christmas tree to give preference - lively, with a unique aroma of needles and really creating a magical New Year's atmosphere or practical artificial - this choice of a person or family is influenced by many factors. Here and the money question - every year a real thorny beauty to buy more expensive than many years to put plastic; and commitment to family traditions; someone is burdened with cleaning crumbling needles, someone opposes the felling of trees in principle (although Christmas trees for sale on the New Year are grown specifically for this purpose), and someone does not think of a real holiday without the smell of live needles.

A real Christmas tree is the choice of romantics, and those who choose an artificial tree make a choice in favor of practicality, finance and ecology. And then, if earlier artificial trees looked unnatural, today they sometimes can not be distinguished from the real. Realism, of course, costs money.

“The price of an artificial Christmas tree depends on the height, density of the crown, the material of needles and design,” says associate professor of the Department of International Commerce and Logistics of the RANEPA Candidate of Economic Sciences Svetlana Ilyashenko. Small trees 60-120 cm high can be found for about 500-3000 rubles. Floor models with a height of 180 cm cost from 3-5 thousand rubles in the budget segment, and up to 15-25 thousand and above for thick cast products. Trees 210 cm high are usually more expensive.”.

The most affordable models are usually made of PVC film. Such needles are sliced strips of material fixed on branches. PVC trees may look neat and festive, but their needles tend to look less like natural ones, especially when viewed closely.

Next is the cast tree option. They are produced by another technology: individual branches are formed from polyethylene. This allows you to more accurately reproduce the shape of real coniferous needles. Such models usually look more realistic, but, obviously, they are more expensive because of the complexity of production.

There is also a variant of combined Christmas trees that combine cast branches and PVC needles. Often cast elements are placed outside, where they are clearly visible, and PVC is used inside the crown to add volume. This allows you to get a fairly realistic appearance at a more moderate price.

“When choosing a Christmas tree, it is important to check the stability of the stand, the strength of the fasteners, the absence of a sharp smell and sharp details,” the expert continues. Special attention should be paid to the fire safety of the product! Even if the manufacturer claims to use highly flammable materials, this does not mean that the product is not capable of burning at all.”.

The fact is that conventional models of Christmas trees without electricians do not require a mandatory certificate or declaration. The manufacturer can voluntarily confirm the properties of the product by tests, including fire hazard indicators, within the framework of Federal Law No. 123-FZ "Technical Regulations on Fire Safety Requirements".

A different situation with Christmas trees with built-in electric lighting and garlands. They are subject to mandatory conformity assessment. (In particular, the TR CU (technical regulations of the Customs Union) 004/2011 "On the safety of low-voltage equipment" and TR CU 020/2011 "Electromagnetic compatibility of technical means" (taking into account the design and power supply) are applied.

At the same time, the quality of an unnatural New Year tree does not depend on the country of production, Svetlana Ilyashenko believes. “Both in Russia and abroad produce products of different price categories,” she says. Among them there are both simple budget models and high-quality Christmas trees with high detail. Much more important is the reputation of the manufacturer, the characteristics of the materials, the design of the product and the availability of documents confirming the claimed properties.”.

Well, at the start, attention - a march for artificial Christmas trees, if you prefer them, otherwise there will be at the end of December only "horns and legs", and not high-quality realistic beauties!